This piece came about by the same rambling path as the little boy in the Family Circus cartoons. Up one side of a conversation and down another, into my head and out as something else, summersaulted and cartwheeled into the studio and finally out the end of brush and pen.﻿Earlier this week my hubby was listening to Stevie Wonder. He suggested the song "As" would be a great prompt for the 31 in 31 challenge. He was envisioning dolphins flying and parrots living at sea. Maybe it was the late hour of this conversation, but I could not wrap my head around the swimming parrots. But I ventured into the labyrinth of contemplating marine creatures, and stumbled into my all-time favorite, the walrus.

Now the walrus is an interesting creature all by itself, with no need for fancy wings or unicorn horns. But inevitably, when I think of walrus, the Beatles song comes into my head. If you ask anyone in my household, they will tell you I cannot get lyrics straight at all, and end up singing whatever I think the words are. It can be quite humorous. In this case, the lyrics are so random (intentionally, as I understand it) that I feel quite comfortable using whatever words rhyme, knowing it won't make the song any more understandable than it is in its original form.

But the idea of the acid trips that inspired John Lennon to write this particular song was too groovy not to explore, and so my walrus is wearing his psychedelic best as homage to his theme song. He asks only that you admire him while singing "goo goo ga joob" repeatedly.

The walrus reminds us that "I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together." And are we all now totally confused?

This piece is available. Currently unframed. Inquiries: imajenation@gmail.com